What I don't like is the fronts not closing. I knew that pattern was written this way, but there's something else about the fit that doesn't work. It feels a bit like it's falling off my shoulders, or maybe it's just too open in the front. That's probably it...I like to be bundled.

I have extra yarn and love the colour (Edward Discovers the Woodchippers make Excellent Juicers) so I'm considering options to fix it without having to do a major rip out.

The construction is a one piece body and the cable collar is added like a giant button band. That's the part I'm going to remove and redo. This picture gives you an idea of what I mean.

My ideas:

1. Rip out the 2nd and 3rd cables and redo them with no increases (I don't love the increases). Then do a wide garter stitch edge that can serve as a foldover collar. I worry it might cover the cable part, but it might not.

2. Lazier option: don't rip out the 2nd and 3rd cables, and instead just undo the bindoff and do the garter collar.

3. Similar to the Maxfield construction: rip out the entire cable collar and redo it as a separate piece in the width I want. Knit two strips, graft them together and sew them to the sweater. This is the very industrious option...

I've been thinking about fixing this cardigan for over a year. And now, by writing about it, I think I've settled on the lazy version with the big garter collar.

It's a short and uneventful drive. The only thing epic about today is the laundry.

We bid a last goodbye to summer at Lake Stocco and now reality starts creeping in.

I'm a metrics girl so here's the numbers (I should do up an inforgraphic!)

4700km driven--Canada is frickin' big.

We slept in eight places:

Quebec City,

Fredericton,

Summerside,

Charlottetown,

Halifax,

Moncton,

Edmundston,

Tweed

We saw four provincial legislatures.

We ate far too many French fries but not enough seafood.

Best place visited: I vote for North Rustico, Clam Harbour also rates high.

Where we'll return to: Need to do a proper vacation in Nova Scotia. I've never been to Cape Breton. I could totally go to Quebec City again. A week on the ocean in PEI would also be perfect.

What I learned: I was really nervous about being the only driver for this trip (long unblogable story--but everything was resolved by Halifax) so I am super proud of myself for deciding not to cancel the trip and push myself. I drove over 3500km! I am awesome.

My family is fantastic. We travel together well. We have fun and Emma and Alexander get along really well, even for teenagers. We crammed ourselves into our tiny Jetta and we had a great time. The kids were away for most of the summer and it was great to end it all together exploring part of our country.

We crossed into Quebec (forgot how close Edmundston is to the border).

We charted a route that gave us a wide berth around Montreal. It is the Friday before the long weekend, and I'm not going anywhere near that traffic/chaos den.

We were successful. We hit some traffic due to construction, but nothing as bad as on the way there.

We drive more.

We cross into Ontario.

We drive.

We arrive in Tweed eleven hours later. Time for a quick visit with family so the kids can visit their grampy.

While this was pretty boring to read, it was mighty boring to experience. Next road trip I plan a route home with some stops along the way (or maybe I continue on my less planning is more fun roadtrip experience!)

I had every intention of getting out of bed early and getting the day started, but the bed in the hotel had the whitest, smoothest sheets, and it was cozy and warm and Craig dropped a Globe and Mail beside me and told me he was off to scavenge breakfast for us...so I stayed and bed and read the paper. It was gloriously vacationy.

He returned with strong coffee, croissants, strawberries, orange juice and dark chocolate toblerone.

I love him.

Then we all took a swim in the pool, had a steam (it was like a warm Clam Harbour--without the awesome waves) and got ready for the last big adventure of our trip.

I had no real knowledge of the tides at the Bay of Fundy or the Hopewell Rocks until I started thinking about this trip and then it became something I needed to see. The underwhelming tidal bore the night before also made me want to see the "real thing" and so off we went.

By the time we arrived, the tide was out and we could walk on the ocean floor. The way the rocks have morphed with the types was spectacular. I loved it.

I took a majillion photos with Emma's DSLR, but haven't gotten to those yet. You'll have to enjoy my Iphone photography instead.

It was quite rainy and cold so it took us a while to get into the spirit of wandering, but the weather improved and we just hung out in nature.

The green stuff is some kind of seaweed. It was everywhere. It was sorta nifty.

We spent a bit of time to watch the tide come in--it's both fast and slow. Apparently it rises 6 inches an hour which is fast, but not when you're obsessively watching it.

Then it was time to start towards home. No one wanted to do the journey, but it was time and we were all a bit ready. After an easy drive to Edmundston, we had a hurried dinner (poor staff were so nice to serve us at almost 10) and a great sleep.

One little extra revelation: Booking a hotel on my Ipad powered by the personal hotspot on my Iphone using travel points rocks!